ninnymary
Garden Master
Well I have 2 of the same kind. One died over the winter and the other one hasn't skipped a beat. Try to figure that one out. They are probably about 6' apart.
Mary
Mary
My agastache doesn't like me. I've planted it several times. It's only ever come back one time.
Well I have 2 of the same kind. One died over the winter and the other one hasn't skipped a beat. Try to figure that one out. They are probably about 6' apart.
Mary
I'm attempting a companion planting this year, though you might also call it a "defensive" planting. I read somewhere over the winter that squirrels and chipmunks are repelled by the aroma of many alliums (probably why they are one of the few things I grow they don't attack) especially A. rosaceum. So I've saved my rosaceum bulbs and am going to stick one in the hole with the handful of seed in each corn hill, in a desperate last ditch attempt to actually get some of them to make it past seedling stage. No that I have much hope on that account. They've shrugged off chili oil, bobcat urine, ammonia, and all the other spray-able things. and have circumvented every fence I can construct, so a plant they don't like the smell of probably will do nothing. More and more, I get the feeling that the only way I'll ever get a corn crop is to move it to somewhere where the neighborhood bylaws DON'T prohibit me from using traps, or anything else that could actually harm the "cute little critters".
Going down your list
1. I DO start my corn in pots and transplant it (it's the only way I can keep it from all being simply dug up and eaten as soon as I plant it) The problem is that we also have deer and raccoons doing the chowing, so the plants aren't safe from being felled until they are three or four feet tall (and the stems are too tough and unsugary to be of interest, by which point, their root systems have long since expanded beyond any pots capacity. Plus the only place POTS are safe is on the pedestals, and we only have seven of those which are always occupied with something (as I said, nearlyEVERY plant we grow gets decimated by the critters , not just the corn so this problem applies to ALL of them)
2. Tried it, but our season is usually too short for watermelons. In the five years I grew them I got melons ONCE (and that year we had a heat wave through most of the spring and summer. and that was only two of them (one bowling ball sized one baseball sized) with so little sugar I had to juice them to make it taste like watermelon.
3. Have to do that already, but our spring is very unpredictable weather wise. Usually, by the time it's warm enough to put anything outside, anything started inside has gotten too leggy to really do well outside, and the wind destroys it all (I really need to find the space and time to make a cold frame) The only times I've started plants inside and really made them work is when I've started them less than two weeks before they are due to go outside, at which point the catch up is more or less negligible. The only reason I still start indoors is for spacing reasons (a lot of the experimental seed doesn't germinate very well, and starting them indoors means I don't need to budget extra space (which is at a premium) on dead seeds.
Also most of my bean space this year (and for the next two) is committed to a grow out of a bean called Mottled Grey, which is best described as a "nominal" or "conditional" pole (it either makes a short climber or stays a very short upright, seemingly at random) hard to thread around a corn plant.
4. Our current cat is more of the play with animals/chase animals type; not great at catching or killing. And an outdoor cat would, if not killed by our current (our current HATES other cats) probably would suffer the same fate at the few legit feral we did have; having a bad encounter and winding up coyote chow.)
Speaking of critters. I should have mentioned we have a double assault. Besides the squirrels, chipmunks and deer above, there are voles and moles working below. And then there are the raccoons and opossums who, while they wont actually eat seedlings, do tend to dig the up and tear them apart in their quest for any insects they can smell now that I turned over the soil.